Make America [insert racism here] Again
Why you'll find me in the hair care aisle picking out the darkest shade I can find.
A picture posted by the current White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is circulating on social media that needs more attention. It needs more attention not for the reasons the original poster wanted but for how it represents the true nature of the current Republican party and its attitudes towards diversity and women.
"Make America Blonde Again" may be meant as a silly play on the rallying call for the alt-right republican party. Still, it exposes the more insidious ideals within the movement. The aesthetic of the bleach blonde is not a new trend, and we have seen it repeat for many years; think Playboy Bunny 90s fad. From Stepford wives to Marilyn Monroe, Britney Spears to Taylor Swift, blondes have straddled the line between sexual icon and wholesome American girl in the annuls of American culture. Blonde people (and America's obsession with them) have many iterations and are multi-faceted.
Does anyone remember America's mom, June Cleaver? Blonde. America's sweetheart Jennifer Aniston? Blonde. The picture of Innocence Cindy Lou Who? Blonde. The lovable rascal Dennis the Menace? Blonde. All three of the Brady Bunch girls and their mother? Blonde! Pop culture in America is and has been decidedly dominated by blondes.
Barbie remains one of the most popular doll brands of all time. Barbie herself is blonde, though she eventually gained friends who were more representative of other cultures. Barbie was an ideal that girls were fed at a young age. She was successful, loved, and appealing. Her impossible body standards remain stoic to this day. This is not to say that Barbie did not do some good when she began broadening her career paths and thereby showing little girls that they could be anything they wanted to be, that is, as long as they were also stylish and appealing while doing it. Barbie also delved into body positivity with dolls of different shapes and sizes. The constant, however, is that Barbie herself remains the ideal; she reigns supreme over her friends whose names you probably can't even remember because all dolls are Barbie dolls that don't quite look like Barbie.
Q: Why does it take longer to build a blonde snowman?
A: Because you have to hollow out the head first.
I know critiquing comedy is taboo, but this is less about the comedy and more about the underlying cultural assumptions. Dumb blonde jokes are pervasive and seemingly timeless. Blondes are often painted as vapid, high-maintenance trophies for men to utilize. The blonde is the quintessential arm candy, subservient with no thoughts of her own. When the alt-right propaganda machine holds the blonde as the ideal, they are not complimenting a hair color. They are elevating the idea that the ideal woman should be seen, not heard, that women should always be cheerful, ignorant, easily controlled, and probably, most importantly, WHITE.
Blonde hair is primarily an Anglo-Saxon trait, occurring less frequently (naturally) in other ethnicities. Blonde was the favored hair color of Nazi Germany, where the ideal Aryan baby had blonde hair and blue eyes. Women were expected to create as many of these ideal children as possible to prove their worth. Idealizing blonde as the standard of beauty is to idealize whiteness as the standard of worth.
While discussing my thoughts around this essay, I was reminded by a colleague about the little social experiment in 1969 in a small junior high school in Maryland. During a week of celebrating brotherhood, this junior high staff devised a plan to introduce students to the realities of prejudice. Integration of schools in this county had only begun 8 short years before. In this experiment, blonde students were singled out for prejudicial treatment (students and parents were informed beforehand). Students were met with separate lunch tables, water fountains, and entrances for blondes. This event garnered national attention and, of course, condescension from some white parents. Many of the students expressed that they gained a deeper understanding of the experience of prejudice and that, from this, some were confronted with their own biases.
What was interesting about this event for the purposes of this essay is that they chose blondes as the group to marginalize. Why blonde and not brunettes or redheads? The choice was appropriate. White Americans watched as the tables were turned a complete 180. If blonde was the white ideal, then utilizing this group would have the most impact.
One did not need the recent war on DEI to see that republicans today hold increasingly racist and misogynistic views. Simply look at pictures of the republican representatives to see what color and gender they prefer.
The MAGA movement and its enigmatic leader are following in the footsteps of those who have come before them. Trump has appointed a legion of identical women who are lauded for their recitation of MAGA talking points. They are a ploy. They represent how men see women. To them, women must stick to the script and serve the male agenda with a smile and cookie-cutter Barbie-like features. They must be the juxtaposition to the conservative conjured image of the frazzled, dumpy feminist liberal woman. The image of women as perfectly posed and coifed amid the chaos of domestic life has driven the impossible beauty standards we have today. Should we step out of that, then we harken back to a time when women with emotions were called hysteric, only now we are called liberal, second-wave feminists like it's a curse.
One needs only look at how fast women are demoted to "miserable, single, cat ladies" if they so much as step out of line.
Republicans are bemoaning declining birth rates in the same breath, advocating for ending birthright citizenship and deportation. In doing this, they show their hand; it was never about birth rates; it was about white birth rates. They want more white women to give birth to more white babies to solidify their white supremacy in the US. They want a breeding pool of subservient, pliable, meek white women. White women are only worth their ability to produce white children and parrot the white supremacy talking points of the right.
These blonde "domestic goddesses" are put up against women who are more representative of an inclusive worldview to toute the "glory" of women's place in the "traditional family unit." These women in their heels, fitted dresses, and blinding blonde hair are thrust in front of the populace as what women can and should be. Ignoring the fact that these women have careers, they wax poetic about the sanctity of being a wife and mother. One needs only look at how fast women are demoted to "miserable, single, cat ladies" if they so much as step out of line.
White women need to recognize the writing on the wall. We are being used to push a white misogynistic agenda, and some of our ilk are sadly here for it—those who are not need to speak out and denounce this. Use what little they give us against them. They provide us with a platform; we raise our voices above them. They give us slack on the leash; we hang them out to dry with it. White conservative men are not our allies. They are the oppressors. They give only if they receive compliance. They hold up certain women only to show you what kind of woman they will accept.
The dove in a shiny cage in a lovely home is just as trapped as the pigeon in the roost. A gilded cage is still a cage. The funny thing is that no significant scientific difference exists between a dove and a pigeon. Both belong to the same species, just different colors and sizes. One might get a fancy name and pseudo-significance in symbolism, but in the end, this is not real. It is man-made and can just as quickly be revoked. Do not find comfort in the "superiority" of your cage. White women must use their privilege to speak out from inside the house.